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The Viet Nam vets I’ve known usually didn’t talk about it much, but I do know they were not treated well. I’ve never known anyone who claimed to have been spit on, but they were certainly called baby killers.

One who did talk a little told me of his first day there. A Vietnamese kid around 12 walked into their camp with two hand grenades, saying potatoes, potatoes? And had to be shot or no telling how many US servicemen would have been killed.

This is why they were called baby killers. They did, at times, have no choice but to shoot young people, in instances such as this one. Ditto for women, they would do the same thing.

The Vietnamese would sneak into their camps by way of tunnels at night and slit people’s throats while they slept. The guy who told me some of this was about 6’3”, 230lbs and not an ounce of fat, ex marine, and I’ve heard him wake up screaming at night.

He went in behind enemy lines with a dozen throwing knives, no gun., If he fired a gun they knew he was there. He had his job to do, get back if he could, he was classified MIA the minute he got on the plane in San Diego. The Military would tell his parents nothing, except he was MIA. They knew he was alive when he showed up at their door. He sometimes survived eating insects and grubs.

It was a nasty, ugly place. Our first experience with guerilla warfare, a completely different scene than anything we had ever dealt with. In addition to that, our troops often had a lot of trouble determining just who the enemy actually was.

Another friend was bow gunner on a river boat. If anything moved in the jungle, they would fire the big machine guns till the barrels drooped, swap barrels and go at it again, cut down everything. It was that or die. Ugly place.

I was in the Navy but stationed on a destroyer tender on the east coast fixing binoculars. Joined in Jan 74. I heard other stories, but none of them first hand. Most of the vets I’ve known talked about it very little, it was not a fun place to be. What they did tell me was pretty ugly.

I also saw a training booklet. It showed how to watch for booby traps. A hole in the ground with spikes at the bottom, covered with leaves on a small net. A bayonet tied to a tree and tied back so you would step on a trip wire and be speared. Sometimes the Viet Cong would hide in holes themselves, pop up and just mow everyone down they could.

And for dealing with all that and more, our troops were treated very badly when they came home. I was against the war too, but never even thought about mistreating anyone who was there, I knew what it was like after hearing a few horror stories, not a chance I was going to mistreat those guys. They had a really hard time.

The guy who went in with throwing knives was a rough character. Really nice guy, I trusted him with my life, but don’t ever touch anything but his foot if you have to wake him up. He came up swinging. All you had to do was walk in the room and drop a pencil on the floor. He’d wake up...I’d walk in and tap his foot. Or talk to him...had to be real careful though...highly trained Marine, tough as nails, 4 tours in Nam...by himself behind the lines with throwing knives. Specialist training, beyond the standard Marine stuff. The guy you want on your side in a fight though...

I’ve known a couple of those, a seal, a few Army guys, all basically the same. Nothing but bad memories. A couple came home with serious drug habits too. They didn’t deserve the treatment they got. Spit on or not, they still didn’t deserve it.